Publishing well-written, well-researched content is one of the best ways to stand out and rank on search engines such as Google – but it can sometimes be difficult to find the time to post regularly. One of the best ways to maximise your investment is to recycle and reuse your old content to appeal to new audiences – below, we tell you exactly how to do just that.
Remove ‘published at’ and switch to ‘last updated’
Your users care about reading relevant, accurate information, so switching from ‘published at’ to ‘last updated’ will provide a better idea of when the content was last touched. If you have an old date on your content, the chances are that your visitors will think your article is outdated – even if it’s not. Give the right impression by showing that you regularly update your content for accuracy.
Create timeless content
Evergreen content was designed with a long shelf life – content that will stand the test of time and send traffic to your website over extended periods of time. Focused on meaning and manufactured for search engine optimisation, such content has no time sensitivity and can be used over several the years. While creating this content can be difficult, you should find that quality, well-written how-to articles, tutorials and historical information will be the best way of driving traffic to your website.
However, you shouldn’t focus solely on timeless content for your website – timely content still has a purpose. It’s relevant, sensitive, real time and is ideal for trending on social media. However, like with every other digital marketing strategy, you should consider how much time and investment you can put into your content marketing, and decide whether or not ‘real time’ news is a viable option for your business blog.
Refresh your existing content
Letting your existing content sit in your archives is a waste of time and effort – so refresh it with modern examples, relevant hooks and updated tips and tricks to give it a boost. Change the headline if it doesn’t fit, but remember to keep the same URL if you want SEO juice from your post to remain.
Avoid time-specific references
If you’re not writing for a news website, then try to avoid time-specific references in your text. By referencing dates, times and using language like ‘today’ and ‘last month’, your content will have a limited lifespan, so be vague with time. One of the best ways of doing this is to read back over your article as if it was a whole year later – will this content still be relevant, or will it appear outdated?
Promote refreshed content in social media
There’s nothing wrong with posting your refreshed content on social media – even if it’s been there before. It’s important that you keep your channel fresh and engaging, so remember to make subtle tweaks to your content before you share it for a second time – whether that’s its title, artwork or even the social media post you create alongside your content. This helps you maximise the reach of your content and allows you to ‘recycle’ posts instead of creating new ones.
Repurpose old content in new and different formats
It’s all well and good spending your time writing a great piece of content, but you need to consider how many people are going to see it when it goes live. To maximise the potential of your blog posts and other written content, try to repurpose it in new and interesting formats to reach new clients. You could, for example, offer an eBook based on your best how-to blogs, or turn one of your best-performing posts into an infographic to use on social and in guest posts. Other ideas include creating presentations on websites like SlideShare, turning your words into quotes for social media imagery, or creating a video or podcast version of your post for a multimedia-savvy audience.
At JAK, we can help with both copywriting and promotional material design to help you make the most out of your content. Whether you’re looking for an infographic, a whitepaper or a blog post, get in touch today on sales@jakinc.uk, call us on 0191 3882 698 or click here to visit our website.